Cappadocia —> Konya

We left our hotel in Cappadocia behind and headed for the small town of Konya, south of Cappadocia. Konya is the largest city in Turkey based on its width. Approximately 2.3 million people live in Konya.

On this drive, around every 40km, there is a caravan (a type of lodging which was used by travellers who imported and exported different goods. The reason why the caravans are spread out every 40km is that camels could walk 9 hours a day (around 40km) before they needed to rest. The caravan we visited is called the Sultanhani Kervansaray. It is one of the bigger caravans still preserved which was built in 1229BC. It was immaculately decorated (though they would always leave a certain imperfection so as to not be trying to imitate God as God is the only thing that can be perfect). Today, there is a cafe in the caravan and we saw a carpet exhibition. Lots of beautiful carpets were hanging from the walls of the grand space.

After a bit more travelling, we made a stop in the Museum of Rumi, which houses the tomb of the famous poet Rumi, who had lived in Konya (he was originally from modern day Afghanistan). The musesum was a former dervish lodge, where dervish worshippers lived and practiced their religion.
This is a popular pilgrimage spot for Islamic people and some people visiting the area were very emotional. The museum houses important Islamic objects such as the beard of Mohammed (which is in a small box), other famous artworks from Turkish artists and the world’s smallest Quran, which you can see under a microscope!

In the rooms surrounding the main building (the former lodges for the dervishes), there are many artefacts from Islamic history such as musical instruments, calligraphy objects, tapestries and various ornaments used by the dervishes.

It was interesting hearing about the lives of dervishes. The training to become a dervish including sitting in the main kitchen area for 3 days and witnessing what was occurring in the lodge before you decided if you wanted to proceed. If the person decided they wanted to proceed, they trained for 1001 days and cooked, cleaned and shopped for others in the lodge. We saw the balancing planks which were used for the dervishes to learn how to spin in circles (which they famously did as part of their rituals for very long periods at a time) - they believed that the whirling was a highly spiritual exercise and brought them closer to higher powers.

The dervish lodges were banned by Atatürk at the beginning of the Turkish Republic. There was a fear of the power of the lodges (which also had political power and were influence) and Atatürk was trying to create a secular country. The lodges are not used today but are an important place to learn about this lifestyle.

We then walked to a nearby restaurant where we shared a delicious Turkish pizza and okra soup before heading out of town to one of the oldest cities in Turkey.

We arrived at the Catahoyuk Neolithic village which was first built around 7500BC. This is the oldest village in Western Turkey. We initially explored some replica houses, with one of the interesting features being that roofs were built with the door on top and people lived most of their everyday lives on the roofs of their houses. This was used for protection from animals and to help with constructing the house walls by not needing to leaving openings in the walls. Archaeologists have tried to find out more about these civilisations from the finds at the sites (although of course there were no written records). We saw replicas of the drawings which were on the wall (which showed hunting scenes and a drawing which archaeologists suspect depict the eruption of a nearby volcano). Many graves have been found on the site - the bodies were buried with possessions which indicates that these people believed in the afterlife. Many of the bodies were buried without their heads and drawings found on the walls lead archaeologists to believe that they may have put the dead people out on their roofs so that vultures could remove their skin before their skulls were removed and they were buried. After the replica houses, we saw one of the archaeological sites and then a small museum. Although there is limited information about these civilisations, historians are finding out more as they investigate further. Very interesting, indeed!

By this time, we were very hot and we then made our way to the homestay which is funded by G Adventures. We met our hosts and then went for a walk around the small town, including a visit to the local primary school where kids were playing soccer!

We arrived back to the house for a delicious home cooked dinner with lots of delicious Turkish bread, lovely soup, capsicum and chilli dishes and tea. We chilled out and went to sleep on our floor mattresses (which were actually quite comfortable!)Leggi altro